


One is One and One

by Anthemyst



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual Character, Gen, Time Travel, time ≠ water universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 08:08:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19058665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anthemyst/pseuds/Anthemyst
Summary: There are two Alix Kubdels. There is one Alix Kubdel and one Alix Kubdel. There is one Alix Kubdel.





	One is One and One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [isadorator](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isadorator/gifts).
  * Inspired by [time ≠ water](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7954243) by [isadorator](https://archiveofourown.org/users/isadorator/pseuds/isadorator). 



> This is something I started writing a million years ago for Miraculous Remix 2017, before I was reassigned to a different author. isadorator very kindly gave me permission to keep working on this all the same, which took forever, but is now done, and I hope everyone enjoys it. There isn't enough Alix Kubdel in this fandom, but an AU with two of her is hopefully a start.

Mostafa Kubdel looked at the two math exams laid out in front of him.

Alix Kubdel: A-

Artemis Kubdel: D+

Mostafa was no stranger to the occasional poor grade, of course. His children had always been smart, but they weren't perfect, and sometimes they had difficulty focusing on their schoolwork in favor of whatever their current obsession was. He preferred to deal with it in a kind but firm manner: extracurriculars were suspended, tutors were hired, and distractions were removed until the next grade showed a marked improvement. Afterwards, things went back to normal.

Mostafa wasn't sure what normal was anymore.

“Artemis,” he said, looking down at his daughter, “can you tell me what happened here?”

Artemis shrugged. “Guess I'm not very good at math,” she said dismissively.

“You've always excelled at it before.”

“No, _Alix_ always excelled at it. This is the first math exam I’ve ever taken.” She was looking her father right in the eye now, daring him to contradict her.

It wasn't that Mostafa wasn't brave enough to answer that dare. He just honestly didn't know what his daughter needed to hear right now, that she was different from her sister or that she was the same.

“Regardless,” he said, avoiding the existential elephant in the room for now, “your homework and quizzes in the subject have been exemplary so far.”

“Just say it,” Artemis snapped. “Say, ‘If Alix can do it, you can do it’. Say I must not have tried. That's what Mrs. Bustier thinks.”

“She said that?”

“No,” Artemis admitted. “But she was thinking it.”

Mostafa sighed. “I don't expect you to be the same as your sister,” he said, and Artemis’ face fell. So that was the wrong answer, then. “After all, you are under a great deal more stress than she is,” her father continued. Your sister does not have half the country loudly and publicly denying her personhood. I cannot imagine what that must be like for you.”

“Oh.” Artemis shrugged again. “Could be worse, I guess.”

Mostafa put the exams down on his desk and pulled his daughter into a tight hug. After a moment she hugged him back just as tightly.

“Tell me what to do, Artemis,” her father whispered. “Tell me what you need.”

“I don't know,” Artemis mumbled into her father’s scarf. “Sometimes everything's fine and sometimes all I can think about is going back to how everything used to be, you know?”

“If only it were in my power to give that to you,” her father murmured. “Perhaps… perhaps it has been selfish of me, to try and bend an entire country to my will. Perhaps it doesn't matter how many court cases I win for you, if you are still so unhappy.”

“I'm not,” Artemis insisted. “Really, it's just… it was just a stupid one-time thing. I'll do better on the next test.”

“I spoke with my brother last night.”

“Uncle Kamal?”

Mostafa nodded. “He thinks there might be a place for me at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, if I want it.”

“Dad, no! You can't quit your job at the Louvre, you've wanted to work there since you were a kid!”

“In Cairo, you and Alix would just be normal twins. People wouldn't know, the way everyone does here, about the… unorthodox circumstances surrounding your existence. Doesn't that sound nice?”

It did, actually. As much as Artemis loved Paris, as much as she'd miss her friends, she knew she'd never stop missing what she could never get back. Maybe a new place, a fresh start…

“People would figure it out,” she said quietly. “Maybe not at first, but eventually someone would look us up and find out. And then it would just be this all over again, wouldn't it?”

Her father frowned. “Your uncle thought that was a possibility as well. He thought…”

“What?”

Mostafa sighed. “I wasn't going to bring it up at all, his suggestion, I hate the idea, but perhaps it should be your decision, not mine. Your uncle thought perhaps you could live with his family for a while.”

Artemis stared. “Without you,” she said. “Just me. Without Jamal. Without Alix.”

“Artemis, you are my daughter and I hate the thought of sending you away. Tell me you hate the idea of going and I will never mention it again. But if you tell me you'd be happier, I will listen.”

Artemis was silent for a moment. “Can I think about it?” she finally asked, her voice small.

Her father kissed the top of her head. “Of course.”

 

* * *

 

“Was he mad?” Alix asked, as her sister entered their room.

Artemis shook her head. “Worse. Worried.”

“Ugh, I hate that,” Alix groaned. “It was a dumb fluke, you'll do better on the next one. We've gotten bad grades before. Why does everything have to be an _issue_ now?” Artemis flopped down on her bed and didn’t answer. “It… it _was_ a fluke, right?”

Artemis shrugged. “Maybe.”

“So no,” Alix said, crossing her arms. “Who was it? What did they say?”

Artemis rolled her eyes. “I don’t need you to beat people up for me, I’m still perfectly capable of doing that myself.”

Alix sat down at the edge of her sister’s bed. “Come on, what happened?”

Artemis sighed. “Kim asked me out. And don’t go bothering him about it, he was totally cool when I said no.”

Alix frowned, confused. “But Kim knows we’re-”

“No,” Artemis interrupted, “he knows _you’re_ ace. My sexuality, apparently, is still up for debate.”

“Oh.” Alix hesitated. “So that’s why you got a D? You were upset because Kim asked you out?”

“I was upset because I wanted to say yes.”

Alix blinked. “You can say yes if you want. If you want to date, that’s-”

“I don’t want to date! I just want to be different from _you_!” Artemis covered her mouth, horrified. “Shit, I didn’t mean to… I’m sorry, I’m not mad at you, I just…” Artemis groaned in frustration. “Everyone thinks me being my own person is the same as me being different from you. What if I’m never different enough for them?”

Alix hesitated for a moment, then sat down on the bed, scooted next to her sister and put an arm around her shoulders. “Fuck ‘em,” she said. “We’re awesome. If we’re always really similar, that’s just twice as much awesome for the world.”

The corner of Artemis’ mouth picked up in a half-grin. “Thanks.”

In the first minutes, hours, days of Artemis’ creation, Alix and Artemis were in the uncanny habit of doing things in perfect unison. They’d speak as one, down to the exact timing and inflection, they’d turn or shake their heads or scoff as one. Eventually, though, after a week or so, these incidents became less and less frequent. The differences in the way people treated them began to add up, random circumstances compounded in what Jamal kept referring to, not unironically, as the Butterfly Effect, until finally the incidents stopped almost completely.

Almost.

In one casual motion, unconsidered and unintentional, Alix and Artemas each reached into their respective pockets and pulled out their twin pocket watches. They looked at each other, surprised, then burst out laughing.

“Do you ever want to just go back?” Alix asked her sister.

“All the time. You?”

Alix shrugged. “I got off lucky, I guess. It’s so dumb. How did everyone decide I’m the real one? I’m not any more real than you are.”

“People are dumb,” Artemis said.

“People are dumb in Cairo, too,” Alix said hesitantly.

Artemis stared at her sister. “Dad told you?”

“No. But I heard Uncle Kamal called. It wasn’t hard to guess why. Don’t go.”

Artemis went tense. “Why not? I’d get a fresh start. You’d get to go back to the way things were.”

“I don’t want to go back,” Alix said softly.

“Really?”

“It’s fine that you do, I don’t blame you, but this…” Alix took a moment to collect her thoughts. “I used to feel so alone sometimes. _We_ used to feel so alone. And now we have each other.”

“Ah.” Artemis nodded slowly. “I guess I did use to feel lonely a lot, even before… us. And it’s been a whole other level of lonely, the way everyone looks at me now, but… yeah, it’s less lonely with you around.”

Alix hesitated. “Will you punch me if I say I love you? Ow!” Alix rubbed her arm, but Artemis was grinning even as she dropped her fist, and Alix grinned back. “Oh, whatever, it was worth it. You know you love me, too.”

“Gross,” Artemis said, sticking her tongue out. “Fine, I won’t go. Obviously you’d be an emotional wreck without me.”

“Obviously. Can’t have that.”

“We have a reputation to maintain.”

“Yep.” Alix leaned her head on her sister’s shoulder, and a moment later felt the weight of Artemis’ head over hers. They sighed as one, content.


End file.
